After the Sept. 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the former president criticized ABC News’ debate moderators, and his supporters piled on about the network’s supposed bias.
Two days after the debate, an X account called The Black Insurrectionist — whose profile says, “I am #MAGA,” shorthand for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan — elevated the ABC criticism with an unverified claim that eventually landed in the halls of Congress.
The claim said an ABC News whistleblower had said in an affidavit that the network conspired with the Harris campaign, giving her the topics in advance and agreeing that others were off-limits.
The X account initially posted on Sept. 12, a Thursday, that it would release the whistleblower affidavit “before the weekend is out.”
“The affidavit states how the Harris campaign was given sample question which were essentially the same questions that were given during the debate and separate assurances of fact checking Donald Trump and that she would NOT be fact checked,” the X post said. It had more than 2.7 million views as of Sept. 20 and had been reshared more than 12,000 times.
An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement to PolitiFact, “ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.”
The anonymous account’s initial post included no evidence to support its claim. The affidavit the account...
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